Message-Id: <8AB806D0-91F7-4D31-BB6E-690E4419C770@socialserve.com>
From: James Robinson <jlrobins@socialserve.com>
To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
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Subject: 8.4 versus 8.2 against nonexistent column "name" ...
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:16:08 -0400

Can anyone shine a light on why 8.4 behaves surprisingly when being  
queried for a bogus column "name", but only using qualified table/ 
column references.

Here's a sample script:

-----
create table foo
(
	id int,
	x int
);

insert into foo(id, x)
values
	(1, 23),
	(2, 43),
	(4, 45);

-- Fails on both -- no column named 'name'
select name from foo;

-- Fails on 8.2, still no 'name' column, but 8.4 succeeds returning  
whole rows.
select f.name from foo f;
----

On 8.2.11, both selects fail:

CREATE TABLE
INSERT 0 3
ERROR:  column "name" does not exist
LINE 1: select name from foo;
               ^
ERROR:  column f.name does not exist
LINE 1: select f.name from foo f;
               ^


On 8.4.2, the first select fails, but the second succeeds, returning  
whole rows wrapped up like tuples:

CREATE TABLE
INSERT 0 3
ERROR:  column "name" does not exist
LINE 1: select name from foo;
               ^
  name
--------
(1,23)
(2,43)
(4,45)
(3 rows)

A quick skim through the 8.3. and 8.4. release notes found nothing  
interesting related to 'name'.

Thanks!
----
James Robinson
Socialserve.com